Microsoft removes File Explorer functionality exclusions in Windows 11

Microsoft will no longer remove some old functionality from the folder options of the new Windows 11 File Explorer, currently being tested. The plan change was reported by the company on Thursday (22).

The Redmond giant announced that in an update released on the 14th for Insider Preview program members, “old settings” have been deleted from File Explorer. The rationale was that the measure would help make the program cleaner and reduce confusion when using it.

These included options such as “Show file icon in thumbnails” and “Show drive letters”. According to the company, these old settings are not used regularly in the latest version of Windows and are therefore disabledhowever there will be a possibility to access them via the system registry key.

However, it seems that contrary to what Microsoft thinks, many people continue to use these features, and their withdrawal has annoyed the testers. Faced with the negative feedback received after the change, the company decided to revert the change.Brings features back to Windows 11 Insider Preview build 23486.

Functions remaining available

After complaints from testers, Microsoft decided to keep the following folder options in the new Windows 11 File Explorer:

• Hide folder merge conflicts;
• Always show icons, never thumbnails;
• Display file icon in thumbnails;
• Display file type information in folder tips;
• Hide protected operating system files;
• Show drive letters;
• Show drop-down description for folder and workspace items;
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color;
• Use the sharing wizard.

The updated version of File Explorer for the stable version of Windows 11 has not been released yet.